A reflex arc is a neural pathway that controls an action reflex. In higher animals, most sensory neurons do not pass directly into the brain, but synapse in the spinal cord. This characteristic allows reflex actions to occur relatively quickly by activating spinal motor neurons without the delay of routing signals through the brain, although the brain will receive sensory input while the reflex action occurs.
There are two types of reflex arc: autonomic reflex arc (affecting inner organs) and somatic reflex arc (affecting muscles).
Read more about Reflex Arc: Monosynaptic Vs. Polysynaptic, The Patellar Reflex (knee Jerk)
Famous quotes containing the words reflex and/or arc:
“No sooner does a great man depart, and leave his character as public property, than a crowd of little men rushes towards it. There they are gathered together, blinking up to it with such vision as they have, scanning it from afar, hovering round it this way and that, each cunningly endeavouring, by all arts, to catch some reflex of it in the little mirror of himself.”
—Thomas Carlyle (17951881)
“If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.”
—Joan Of Arc (c.14121431)